Splatoon 2 Review

Splatoon 2

Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo Platform: Switch Release: 2017 Players: 1 (Campaign), 4 (Salmon Run), 8 (Turf War, Ranked) Genre: Third-Person Shooter Rating: 8.7 \ 10.0: Fantastic

Above is a player claiming the tower in the Tower Control mode

Back in 2015, the original Splatoon became one of the few successes on the poor-selling Wii U. It was a wonderfully original game -- a family friendly third-person shooter in which players controlled kids that could transform into squids that could swim through ink fired by their weapons. However, it lacked content at launch, but become a better and better game over the next year. When it was first released, Splatoon 2 was in a better state than its predecessor, but played very similarly and suffered from many of the same issues. While this is still mostly true, I feel that Splatoon 2  has become a worthy sequel thanks to its content updates.

The game's story mode, Octo Canyon, picks up two years after the previous game. The Great Zapfish which provides power to Inkopolis has vanished once again, seemingly due to the Octarians. Marie, one of the Squid Sisters from the previous game, recruits your custom Inkling to help retrieve the Zapfish and track down Callie, the other squid sister, who has also gone missing.

Octo Canyon's gameplay has remained basically unchanged from its Wii U counterpart-- you traverse oddly constructed platforming gauntlets and fighting Octarians along the way in order to reach the mini Zapfish trapped at the end of the level, and you may encounter a hidden scroll or silver sardine. The scrolls contain beautiful artwork accompanied by a piece of the game's bizarre lore and the sardines can be used to upgrade your primary weapons, purchase new sub-weapons, and increase your ink tank's capacity. The primary change made between games is that you now are able to choose what weapon to use before entering a stage. The majority of the stages require you to use a certain weapon on the first playthrough and let you equip whatever you'd like on subsequent runs. Despite the fact that many levels are best designed to accommodate the use of certain weapons, most of them are fun to play regardless of what you choose to use, a select few (especially the boss of the fourth area) are absurdly frustrating to replay with equipment you were not forced to use the first time. This wouldn't be an issue for me, but as a pseudo-completionist, I made it my goal to complete every level in the game using the Splat Dualies in order to acquire the golden version of them to use in multiplayer.

One area in which this game is especially strong is its aesthetic. The bizarre but pleasant character designs and colorful environments are accompanied by what has become one my favorite video game soundtracks. Octo Canyon features music with a bizarre but catchy mix of various instruments and distorted vocal samples, while the multiplayer mode features tracks from various fictional bands including the electronic group the Chirpy Chips, the Celtic rock band Bottom Feeders, the rock group Wet Floor, the jazz band Ink Theory, and the pop idol duo Off the Hook which consists of the game's news anchors Pearl and Marina. All of the multiplayer songs (with the exception of those by Ink Theory) contain lyrics in the fictional Inkling language, but they all sound great despite not being comprehensible.

Splatoon 2's multiplayer gameplay hasn't changed much from the first game either. Like before, you can choose to either play Turf War or Ranked. In Turf War, matches last three minutes and the objective is to have covered the more ground with your team's color of ink than the enemies when time expires. In Ranked, there are four modes that can be played: Splat Zones, in which your team must capture and hold a single point (sometimes two) for a total of 100 seconds by covering it in their team's ink, but a time penalty will be given if the zone is reclaimed by the opposition; Tower Control, in which there is a tower that members of a team must stand on in order to move it towards the goal at the enemy spawn point; Rainmaker, in which the teams fight over the incredibly powerful weapon upon which the mode is named and have a minute to deliver it to the enemy spawn point (if this time expires, the player holding it will automatically be "splatted"); and the new Clam Blitz, in which a player must collect ten clams to acquire a projectile that, when thrown at the enemy team's goal, lowers their defenses and allows their allies to temporarily score points by tossing clams at the goal.

The largest addition to the Splatoon series' multiplayer suite is the new Salmon Run mode. In this take on the coop horde mode, a team of four inklings are sent to various locations that are being attacked by anthropomorphic salmon known as Salmonids. You must survive three waves that each last 100 seconds, but must also gather and deposit enough golden eggs into a capsule to fulfill a quota you are given at the start of each round. Three of these eggs are dropped when you defeat a boss Salmonid, and the number of eggs you must gather raises after each round. Each player can only carry one egg at a time, and Salmonids will snatch up unclaimed eggs and escape.This encourages you to communicate with your team using messages that can be sent using the D-pad in order to grab the eggs before they can be taken by the enemies.

I find all of these multiplayer modes to be enjoyable, but how they are accessed is the source of most of my gripes with this game. Unlike most multiplayer games which allow you to select any game mode at any time and be placed in any of the maps that are compatible with that mode, Splatoon 2's 

maps and modes are scheduled. Every two hours, one ranked game mode will be available, there will be two maps available for that game mode, and two maps for Turf War. Salmon Run will be available for six to twelve hours at a time, and you read that right-- Salmon Run is occasionally unavailable for up to half a day! There have been several times when I've logged on hoping to play Salmon Run only for it to not be playable for several more hours. I could have avoided this by checking the Splatoon 2 calendar on the Switch mobile app but no video game should require me to pay attention to its own schedule when mine is already busy. This incentivized me to grind in order to acquire Salmon Run rewards or to increase my rank in a specific mode (each ranked mode now has an individual rank instead of one rank being shared between each mode like in this game's predecessor). This isn't a fatal flaw, but it can be very annoying to players with limited time to play the game.

Another good but flawed aspect is the customization. There are numerous weapons to use of which two types are new. These are Splat Brellas, which function as a shotgun when the trigger is tapped and deploy a umbrella which functions as a shield when the trigger is held, and Splat Dualies (which are absurdly fun to use, dual-wielded full auto weapons that allow you to dodge roll by pressing B while moving and shooting, then fire a more concentrated stream of ink while standing still after a roll. There are also countless clothing items to collect. They offer various perks such as increased enemy ink resistance, faster ink refill speed, and faster respawn time. When a clothing item is first purchased, you can view its primary perk and how many extra perk slots it has. You unlock extra perk slots by using the piece of gear during battle, and once the slots are unlocked, you are given a random extra perk. By using Super Sea Snails which can be acquired by participating in the monthly Splatfest events, you can increase the number of perk slots a piece of gear has up to four, re-randomize the perks of a fully upgraded piece of gear, or select specific perks. However, picking exactly which perk you want requires Ability Chunk corresponding to that perk. These Chunks are given to you when you re-randomize the perks on a piece of gear, and you receive one Chunk for each perk that was erased from the gear. Most of the perk selections require ten Ability Chunks, but the more powerful perks require 20. Because of this, it can take an absurdly long time that create a full outfit with exactly what perks you want -- I've played the game's multiplayer for several dozen hours and haven't been able to accomplish this myself.

Splatoon 2 is a fantastic game and a must-have for Switch owners who desire a solid multiplayer experience. Although its schedule can be obnoxious and creating your ideal loadout takes far too long, it is well worth playing for both its single- and multiplayer content.

Ups

Fantastic and highly replayable campaign

Great graphics and music
Wide variety of multiplayer modes
Addictive Squid Beatz mode
Decent customization

Downs

Some levels are not optimal to replay with certain weapons
In-game schedule sometimes prevents access to Salmon Run

Game prevents you from properly leaving matches, but sometimes disconnects
Choosing gear upgrades is very tedious

ESRB: E 10+ Content: Cartoon Violence Price: $59.99 (Retail / Download)